Internal rifts cut deep into Iran parliament races

Iranians walk in Tehran's main bazaar one day before Iran's parliamentary elections in Iran, Thursday, March 1, 2012. The electoral banner with the photo of Islamic Republic leader Ali Khamenei in Persian reads, "the principles of the election is a divine duty, as it is choosing the right candidate." (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
— AP

Iranians walk in Tehran's main bazaar one day before Iran's parliamentary elections in Iran, Thursday, March 1, 2012. The electoral banner with the photo of Islamic Republic leader Ali Khamenei in Persian reads, "the principles of the election is a divine duty, as it is choosing the right candidate." (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
/ AP

Iranian women sit on a bench next to a board with posters of an election candidate, Shahla Mahmoudi, one day before Iran's parliamentary elections in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, March 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)— AP

Iranian women sit on a bench next to a board with posters of an election candidate, Shahla Mahmoudi, one day before Iran's parliamentary elections in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, March 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
/ AP

TEHRAN, Iran 
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's name will be nowhere on Friday's ballots. But the voting for parliament seats will be very much about him and what's left of his final term in office.

The races for Iran's 290-member parliament boil down to a contest between conservative groups that have turned against each after crushing reformists in the upheavals that followed Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009 - the last major voting in Iran.

One bloc seeks to further diminish Ahmadinejad's political stature; the other hopes to give him a rebound after being humbled in a lopsided power struggle with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The outcome will have little sway over Iran's major policies - including its nuclear standoff with the West - but could easily set the tone for Ahmadinejad's home stretch in office and the election in 2013 to pick his successor.

A strong showing for Ahmadinejad's backers would throw him a political lifeline and the chance to exert some influence over next year's election. Anything less would be interpreted as exiling Ahmadinejad into lame duck limbo and cementing ultra hard-line control over Iranian affairs.

That would virtually guarantee a hand-picked Khamenei loyalist as the next president and present a seamless front against Western efforts to curb Iran's uranium enrichment, which the U.S. and others fear could lead to development of nuclear weapons. Iran says it only seeks reactors for energy and medical research.

On many levels, the parliament election is a snapshot of Iran's pecking order after claims of vote rigging in June 2009 touched off Iran's worst domestic unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Liberals, reformists and youth groups that led the protests are virtually absent from the parliamentary ballots after relentless crackdowns and arrests. Conservatives - now left without a unifying foe - have splintered into various factions either backing or rejecting Ahmadinejad for daring to challenge Khamenei and the ruling clerics.

"Reformists are nowhere to be seen," said Maryam Khatibi, a Tehran-based political analyst.

Iran's parliament carries more powers than most elected bodies in the Middle East, including setting budgets and having influential advisory committees such as national security and foreign affairs. The current parliament is led by a former nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani.

But the chamber still lacks any direct ability to force policy decisions on Khamenei or the powerful forces under his control, including the Revolutionary Guard military establishment.

In years past, the parliamentary elections were the most important bellwether in the seesaw fights between hard-liners and groups that sought greater political freedoms and possible openings toward Washington. It's now a skirmish for high ground among the political survivors after nearly three years of crackdowns: An array of conservatives whose main policy views vary only slightly.

The real divide is Ahmadinejad - another lesson in the high costs of running afoul with Iran's theocracy, particularly at a time when the leadership insists on rock-solid unity in its standoffs with the West.

In his second term, Ahmadinejad has gradually tried to extend his influence into the domain of the ruling clerics, such as foreign policy and intelligence gathering. Ahmadinejad is in his second four-year term, the maximum under Iran's term limits.